Chamber and committees

Through the Town Centre Housing Fund, £2.55 million was awarded to six projects, bringing vacant and derelict town centre buildings back into use and providing 75 units for affordable housing across six local authority areas – Angus, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Fife, Clackmannanshire and Perth and Kinross.

Town Centre Housing Fund promotes town centre living, a key theme of our Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP) through the provision of quality, affordable housing. The measures set out in the TCAP set the conditions and support activity across the wider public, private and community sectors to tackle the key issues in town centres across Scotland.

The Town Centre First Principle agreed by the Scottish cabinet and all Council Leaders asks that all investment decisions consider the impact on the town centre as a starting point.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05272 on 13 December 2016. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Local authorities are committed to the verification performance framework that was introduced in 2012 and are subject to regular monitoring by Scottish Government.

Scottish Government commissioned Pye Tait Consulting to undertake an ‘Evaluation of the performance of local authorities in their role as verifiers’ and their report was published in March 2016. The independent research concluded that:

“In summary, whilst there has been substantial progress and investment in delivering a high quality and customer-focused building standards service since the last re-appointment of local authorities in 2011, there is still work to do to create the conditions for strong performance across all 32 Councils.”

The eDevelopment Programme finance model involves costs being shared, with the Scottish Government funding the capital investment in the technology and local authorities paying annual support and maintenance costs. Local authorities collectively will pay £71,000 during the current financial year for support and maintenance in relation to the eBuildingStandards.scot service.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about any other investment or costs to local authorities, in relation to their preparation for implementation of the service.

Each of the 32 local authorities is responsible for resourcing their building standards services appropriately.

I have become aware that since the economic downturn of 2008 there have been situations where experienced Building Standards Managers and staff have either retired or taken voluntary exit arrangements from local authorities. At the same time there appears to have been little corresponding intake of trainee or apprentice Building Standards Officers in many areas of Scotland. I understand that as the volume of building projects has been increasing some local authorities have had difficulty in recruiting and replacing staff. The Scottish Government is currently consulting on Building Warrant Fees which includes a proposal to increase fees to provide additional funding to local authorities.

Scottish Government is aware that delays may be due to local authority processing, the quality of the submitted plans, or delays in applicants submitting revised details. A revised Performance Framework with agreed measurable targets will be introduced as part of the future appointment of verifiers. These targets will be regularly monitored and verifiers will be subject to periodic inspection and will be required to address any areas of concern.

The Scottish Government is keen to encourage owners of empty properties to bring them back into use to increase the supply of housing in Scotland. We are tackling the problem through legislative changes, provision of funding, and practical advice and assistance.

We are providing £2.6 million through the Town Centre Housing Fund to bring vacant and derelict town centre buildings back into use as affordable housing. We have made up to £4 million available through the Town Centre Empty Homes Fund to bring empty properties back into use as affordable housing. In addition the
£4.5 million Empty Homes Loan Fund provides loans to owners to help them renovate empty homes and make them available as affordable housing.

We are also funding the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, which has been managed by Shelter Scotland since 2010. The Partnership provides practical assistance to councils and others to help owners bring their empty properties back into use.

At local authority level, the Local Government Finance (Unoccupied Properties etc.) (Scotland) Act 2012 and its subsequent regulations allow councils to both remove the discount on certain types of unoccupied homes and to increase the level of council tax payable on these properties. 20 Councils are currently applying the vacant dwelling council tax powers with 17 applying the full 100% increase.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on police officer statistics at local authority level. Police Scotland publish sub-national officer numbers at divisional level on a quarterly basis. http://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/police-scotland/212598/

The Scottish Government is promoting investment in town centres through the Town Centre Action Plan (TCAP). The plan is a cross-government response to the recommendations of the national review of town centres and includes actions designed to support their revitalisation and to assist local action towards achieving this.

The Town Centre First Principle (TCFP) which underpins the action plan was jointly developed by Scottish Government and COSLA. The principle is about adopting an approach to decisions that considers the vibrancy of town centres as a starting point. It asks that the health of town centres features in decision making processes. The principle is about open, measured and transparent decision making that takes account of medium to longer term impacts on town centres.

More information on TCAP and TCFP can be found at the Scottish Government town centre regeneration website:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/town-centres

We encourage businesses to invest in town centres by delivering the most competitive business tax environment in the UK, with two in five properties in Scotland paying zero or reduced rates under the Scottish Government’s Small Business Bonus Scheme and relief also available under Fresh Start.

We have introduced a substantial power under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 which gives councils more control over business rates and an opportunity to tailor them to their local area and circumstance. It could be applied in order to attract new investment into our town centres.

Governance of the Police Service of Scotland is a matter for the Scottish Police Authority, as established in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 with cross-party support. The Scottish Government would encourage all members to participate in local engagement activity being led by Divisional Commanders in relevant areas.